This is a place for me to share some of my work. On this site you will find many examples of micro lessons. Many of them will take the form of 1 to 10 minutes video clips or short to the point articles. I believe that micro lessons could be a powerful tool that we can use with students. I hope that you enjoy this Blog site. This site will discuss educational technology as a tool for student learning. Site Publisher Fred Sharpsteen
email contact sharpstf@gmail.com

Saturday, June 30, 2012

What They Do

MACUL helps educators identify sound educational practices related to technology as well as understand the implications of rapid changes in technology. Recognizing the challenges in preparing students, we strive to encompass the entire educational community from preschool through college level.

MACUL is a force in building professional coalitions with organizations including the Michigan Virtual University, the Michigan Department of Education, AT&T, and others to benefit educators and students in the integral use of technology in education.

We are an organizational affiliate of the International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE).

Our Purpose

To provide a state association for educators involved with, or seeking knowledge of, educational computing and technology.

To provide for the sharing and exchanging of ideas, techniques, material, and procedures for use in educational technology and for the improvement of educational computing through conferences and publications.

To promote recognition of the vital professional role played by the educational technology specialist in schools and the level of competence required for this role.

To promote and encourage effective, ethical, and equitable use of computer-related technology in education.

To encourage and support research relating to educational computing and technology.

To work in conjunction with other state and national organizations who have similar purposes.

Vision

MACUL is a catalyst of innovation in education by strengthening relationships among educators, leading pedagogical change, and empowering schools with world-class professional development opportunities.

Here is a quote from the article it is a game changer with the Apple IOS devices.

"Today’s Google IO Keynote, incidentally, was all about the Web. (Day 2 of Google IO always is.) Google touted the phenomenal pace of adoption of the Chrome browser and of its Google Apps offerings. (The one mention of education during the IO keynotes came here, in the long list of schools that have "gone Google.") The company also unveiled new features for the Chrome browser, for the Chrome OS, and for Google Drive. (Google Docs are finally available offline. Hooray!) It also introduced iOS versions of the Chrome browser.
And that’s a key piece of news, and one that's pretty indicative of Google's bigger vision – it isn’t just the fact that the world’s most popular browser can now work on all those iPads and iPhones. Chrome on iOS highlights the importance of cross-platform and cross-hardware support. And it’s a recognition that when Google talks about the future of mobile, it doesn’t just mean Android. It means the mobile Web."

Wednesday, June 27, 2012

Yong Zhao is the University Distinguished Professor of Education at Michigan State University, where he also serves as the founding director of the Center for Teaching and Technology as well as the US-China Center for Research on Educational Excellence. He is a fellow of the International Academy for Education and currently serves on the National Academy of Sciences National Research Council's Committee to Review the Title VI and Fulbright-Hays International Education Programs.

Zhao received his Ph.D. in Education from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 1996. His research interests include diffusion of innovation, teacher adoption of technology, computer assisted language learning, globalization and education, and international and comparative education. Zhao has published extensively in these areas. He has been invited to lecture on issues related to education reform, globalization, and technology in more than 10 countries. He received the 2003 Raymond B. Catell Early Career Award from the American Educational Research Association.

Zhao asks whether it's sensible for American students to emulate their Asian (particularly Chinese) counterparts by adopting rigorous science and math curricula and an extended school day in order to stay "competitive" globally. While Zhao recognizes that there are fundamental problems with American public education, he praises the culture of education in this country, a culture that prizes ingenuity, entrepreneurship and individuality and celebrates personal expression for its own sake. He criticizes No Child Left Behind, asserting that standardized testing in a limited number of subjects as a way to measure performance is inadequate to meet the real challenges of the 21st century.

Not unlike many of the micro lesson videos on this website, this one is a 1 hour and 47 Min video.
This video is a video starts at 42 Min there is some student show cases before the keynote.

How do you prepare students for their future when globalization and rapid technological changes make it almost impossible to predict what the future will be like? In this presentation, Dr. Yong Zhao shows how the current measures of education quality, such as the PISA and TIMSS, are misleading, and how the so-called high-performing education systems do not actually produce the kind of creative and entrepreneurial talents we need. He makes the case for a future-oriented education starting with each child instead of an authoritative prescription of knowledge and skills. He discusses the education necessary to prepare students to be globally competent and creative entrepreneurs.

Also featuring remarks for ISTE CEO Don Knezek and a recognition of long-time ISTE staffer Anita McAnear, who retires at the end of July.

At last, here's a smartphone that recognizes your voice, understands your intentions, and lets you create and share precious moments instantly. You'll be able to send photos, videos and information easier and faster than ever; stay better connected to friends and family members from wherever you are; and run multiple functions on your phone at the same time.

ASUS has just hinted on a Dual-OS, and potentially dual-screen tablet, coming to Computex 2012. I bring you the 2 official trailers and some further details.
After the rather vague teaser from three days ago, ASUS is back with two new videos to highlight its surprises at Computex next week. The first one comes with the tag line "All-in-one is no longer in one," with the money shot being the Windows 8 logo and the Android mascot showing up on two water droplets after they separated. This dual-OS and possibly dual-body concept reminds us of the Lenovo IdeaPad U1 Hybrid that never really materialized on the market (at the time of publishing this article, Lenovo's product page still embarrassingly says "This laptop is not available to purchase yet"), so we certainly hope ASUS won't fall into the same pit with its upcoming mysterious product.

The second teaser, titled "When two sides unite," features a suspended cardboard with "Tai" printed on the left of the white side, and "Chi" on the right of the black side. After a finger smears a dot of paint on the "i" on both sides, the cardboard starts spinning to show a flickering image of "Tai Chi." Our money's on a laptop with a dual-side touchscreen on the lid (the smearing being the hint for touch input), thus saving the need of extra mechanical parts to make a convertible device (and out goes the Eee Pad Slider). Ultimately it depends on whether the cost of such double-sided displays like LG's would be feasible for ASUS to realize this idea; or worse yet, this could be just a matter of slapping two display panels back to back à la Samsung SCH-W999, which might not make sense when you take both weight and cost into consideration.
-http://www.engadget.com/2012/05/31/asus-computex-2012-teasers/

An increasing number of primary and secondary schools are leveraging video conferencing for classroom-to-classroom collaboration as a way to expand their curriculum and give students memorable learning experiences by interacting with students and teachers in other cities, states and countries. Each year hundreds of schools get their first experience through Read Around the Planet, a free, annual video conferencing event sponsored by Polycom, Inc., the leading provider of visual communications solutions, and Two-Way Interactive Connections in Education (TWICE), Michigans K-12 video conference organization. In its ninth year, Read Around the Planet 2010 took place between Feb. 22 and March 5 and involved more than 58,000 students in six countries.

Viewsonic offers outstanding Digital Video Signage solutions that can be easily deployed across many venues. Digital Signage Made Easy.
ViewSonic® is poised to provide the best in complete Digital Signage solutions. With display sizes from 10" to 300", we can fill messaging requirements for any application. Content management with a variety of options from network media players to ruggedized, energy efficient PC solutions. ViewSonic's proprietary Signage Manager Express Software enables expert control of digital media content with ease. We have digital media players that suit an array of digital signage applications and needs. ViewSonic is making digital signage a realistic, affordable and smart solution for any business or institution.

Every week a new shiny device is released and it can become distracting from the
educational goals of a district, unless the focus is on good teaching and not
the device. Take the time to collaborate and create a foundational plan that
will guide good teaching practices that support the learning goals.

-
Jon Castelhano, CIO Advisor

I believe that the quote just helps to remind me of what I
always have to keep in mind when making these decisions.

We can’t stay stagnant and we always need to be evaluating
what we are doing within the continually improving process and the trends of
the educational world around us. I also believe that we have to keep this in
balance from getting caught up in the hype and sales spin of marketing. Further
more if we don’t evaluate these trends and the moving ahead with educational
systems changes. We stand to fall behind our peers in education of our
students. To accomplish balance, I believe that it means making sure that the
changes are based in solid research and known best management practice. Also in
taking the time to collaborate with the team members, create buy in from the
group and establish it as part of the learning culture.

I am in no way saying that we in education don't follow some or all these
philosophy, it is just easy if we don't keep it in mind to skip this when
implementing some new educational widget. Also if we don’t take the time to-do
this with for thought in mind, we will be using valuable resources. These resources
could be needed somewhere else within the organization and reduced the
education outcome of our children.

Boushra and Line Dalile are 15 and 13 years old home-schooled students. They were born in Syria and have lived in the UAE since 2005. They attended regular schooling until the age of 13 and 11 when they decided to become homeschooled. Time-flexibility, the ability to achieve faster, and being able to teach themselves the way they want to be taught are ones of many reasons for this very serious decision. Their love of learning expanded to learning multiple languages, for example: Line speaks Arabic, English, Chinese and German while Boushra speaks Arabic, English, Italian and French.They are also multi-sport girls who like to ski, swim and have remarkable achievements in their favorite sport, Golf. When Line was at the age of 12, she published her first poetry e-book. With the help of her sister, Boushra, they were able to organize a golf e-book, it's already published and more are coming soon.

If we want to engage kids here is one approach that might help to do that. A musical investigation into the nature of atoms and subatomic particles, the jiggly things that make up everything we see. Featuring Morgan Freeman, Stephen Hawking, Michio Kaku, Brian Cox, Richard Feynman, and Frank Close.

Peer into Aaron Sams' classroom as he explains why he flipped his classroom. Aaron Sams, along with Jonathan Bergmann were the first to flip their classes. The currently teach in Woodland Park Colorado and are writing a book about the Flipped Class.

In March 2012, US Secretary of Education Arne Duncan expressed his conviction that "technology is a game-changer in the field of education." One year ago President Obama put out a call for "investments in educational technology that will help create digital tutors that are as effective as personal tutors, educational software as compelling as the best video game."

What are the sorts of promising innovations living up to this challenge? How are they accelerating the quality of and access to education? Is gaming an effective tool? What are the challenges in adapting these technologies in everyday practice? And how can we trust that they will deliver on the promises? Are there compelling opportunities for entrepreneurs? The Churchill Club has assembled a diverse set of thought leaders to offer unique perspectives on these questions and explore big changes looming over the horizon.

Every week a new shiny device is released and it can become distracting from the
educational goals of a district, unless the focus is on good teaching and not
the device.
Take the time to collaborate and create a foundational plan that
will guide good teaching practices that support the learning goals.

Flashcards are used by students and educators every day and are one of the most popular ways to learn a subject or topic. The internet makes this learning tool even easier through the use of dedicated websites that allow for flashcard creation, collaboration, and more.

15 Online Sites for Creating Flashcards

1.Braineos - A fun site for students to create flashcards to play educational games on a wide variety of subjects.
2.CoboCards - A nice site and mobile app for creating and sharing flashcards. Great way to collaborate with others.
3.Ediscio - A great site for creating flashcards and arranging them into boxes.
4.Fauxflash - A wonderful site for creating flashcards and searching through educational categories. These flashcards can contain images as well.
5.Flashcard Flash - An innovative search engine designed for finding publicly-shared flashcards.
6.FlashCardFriends - A nice site for creating flashcards. FCF is also a social networking site which allows for collaboration as well as the ability to edit existing decks.
7.Quizlet - A neat little site for creating flashcards that's ideal for studying vocabulary, languages, or more. Also a nice site for playing studying games.
8.Smash Cards - An innovative site that uses augmented reality for creating flashcards for English and reading.
9.Social Decks- A nice site for sharing flashcards via a unique URL that allows others to edit.
10.Study Blue - A great site for creating flashcards from photos, audio, or notes and then sharing with others. SB also offers a wonderful mobile app for studying on the go.
11.Study Shuffle - One of the best sites for creating flashcards that teachers can use to track students' progress.
12.Study Stack - A nice all-in-one solution for creating and studying flashcards. Includes lots of educational "stacks" to browse through.
13.Word Dynamo - An excellent site for creating flashcards. Users can take quizzes, view study guides, play games, and more.
14.Yappr - A nice online community for creating a flashcard or quiz.
15.Zendo - A great site for turning notes into flashcards.

Parag Khanna argues that we have moved into a new era called "The Hybrid Age," in which we are now a template for technology, "both the physical incorporation or biological, but also the psychological."

Whether you are a teacher looking for helpful videos on effective teaching practices, or a blogger or webmaster looking to share a great resource, Teaching Channel has you covered. If you'd like additional information on how to use or support Tch, email us at info@teachingchannel.org and we'll get right back to you.

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Bill talks about the work of Malcom Gladwell and the Outliers
Bill Gates responds to Malcolm Gladwell's theory that it takes 10,000 hours of deliberate practice to master a skill. Apart from acknowledging luck, timing and an open mind, Gates suggests that a successful person survives many cycles of attrition to make it to 10,000 hours of experience. "You do have to be lucky enough, but also fanatical enough to keep going," explains Gates.

This NMC Horizon Reports 2012 K12 Edition. This video shows the new trends in education. It talks about near term trends as Mobile learning with educational Apps. Longer-term trends are Personal Learning networks, Educational augment reality and gesture interface to computers.

This is an interesting article and we see this in our school system also with the students. Education needs to work on building on Critical Thinking Skills. It is no longer acceptable for students to just know information but they also need to be able to apply what they know. Also I think Dr. Schmoker brings up good points about if we want to close the achievement gap that we need student to be able to Read then Talk about what they read and then to be able to write about it in a meaningful way.

Sunday, June 10, 2012

The Dash Movie: Life works in strange ways. Joseph Epstein once said, "We do not choose to be born. We do not choose our parents, or the country of birth. We do not, most of us, choose to die; nor do we choose the time and conditions of our death. But within this realm of choicelessness, we do choose how we live."

Wednesday, June 6, 2012

A parent of two middle school-aged children, Will Richardson has been blogging about the intersection of social online learning networks and education for the past 10 years at Weblogg-ed.com. He is a former public school educator for 22 years, and is a co-founder of Powerful Learning Practice, a unique long-term, job-embedded professional development program that has mentored over 3,500 teachers worldwide in the last four years.

Daniel Pink, bestselling author of A WHOLE NEW MIND, offers a metaphor for the changes taking place in the world of work and discusses how those changes relate to education. Visit discoveryeducation.com to learn more about Discovery Education's professional development resources

Dr. Tony Wagner, co-director of Harvard's Change Leadership Group has identified what he calls a "global achievement gap," which is the leap between what even our best schools are teaching, and the must-have skills of the future: * Critical thinking and problem-solving * Collaboration across networks and leading by influence * Agility and adaptability * Initiative and entrepreneurialism * Effective oral and written communication * Accessing and analyzing information * Curiosity and imagination

In America today, there is a new Achievement Gap: it is the gap between the new skills that all students need in the 21st century versus what is tested and taught even in our best schools. There is also a Learning Gap between how the Net Generation is learning and collaborating out of school versus what they do all day in classrooms. In his presentation, Tony Wagner will help educators understand these gaps and then explore the most effective strategies for preparing all students for careers, college, and citizenship in the new global knowledge society.

http://voices.washingtonpost.com/answer-sheet/diane-ravitch/what-ravitch-told...
Education historian Diane Ravitch gave a speech at Rice University about school reform in which she directly challenged officials from Teach for America and the Knowledge Is Power Program who were present -- the very people who had invited her.
REEP, KIPP and TFA Lecture Series from Jon Paul Estrada on Vimeo.
Ravitch, the author of the bestselling book "The Death and Life of the Great American School System" and a former assistant secretary of education, spoke at Rice as part of a lecture series sponsored by The Rice Education Entrepreneurship Program (REEP), the Knowledge Is Power Program (KIPP), and Teach for America.
Point by point, she picked apart school reform measures pushed by the Obama administration, leaving no topic untouched: charter schools, value-added teacher assessment, punitive sanctions on low-performing schools, No Child Left Behind, how Finland became an educational model by supporting teachers in ways the United States doesn't, the Texas educational miracle that wasn't, etc.
Noting that most public charter schools are not any better, and often worse, than traditional neighborhood public schools, Ravitch addressed officials from KIPP, one of the country's most successful public charter school networks:
"What I want to say to KIPP, because I really really admire what you are doing. You have an excellent reputation, you get great results. Thousands of new charters will be created in the wake of your success. But your results are not typical. Warn President Obama and Secretary Duncan.... that the wonderful results you get are unusual they are not typical of the charter sector. You must disassociate yourself from the educational robber barons, dilettantes and incompetents who are following in your wake making false promises and delivering a low-quality education to poor and minority children."
That got a loud applause from the crowd.
Mike Feinberg, co-founder and superintendent of KIPP Houston, listened to the speech and participated in a discussion with Ravitch after the speech. He didn't mention the challenge.
She also spoke about Teach for America:
"If I were just graduating from college, which I wish were true, I would surely want to join Teach for America. I understand why tens of thousands of idealistic college students sign up for a two-year term as a teacher in a school serving poor students. I have met many many young people who are in TFA now and I have been impressed by their intelligence, their enthusiasm, their sincerity and dedication.
"But I would urge you please, stop claiming that TFA will close the achievement gap. That may be a nice slogan but nobody can teach for two or three years and close the achievement gap. Closing the achievement gap requires a lot more than really smart and dedicated young people with five weeks of training and a lot of enthusiasm. It requires highly skilled career professionals with deep experience who are willing to stick to the profession.... You send out a false message that your corps of young people is all that it takes and that's not true.
"The TFA message is supporting efforts to undercut professionalism in every part of education. Not only do we now have superintendents who were never educators but now we have many programs to train non-educators to be principals.
"TFA supposedly proved that no professionalism was needed, just really smart people. So now we have the George W. Bush Institute, allied with TFA, planning to train 50,000 new principals over the next decade, many of them drawn from business, the military, sports and other non-educational fields.
"As I was driving into Houston yesterday, my brother pointed out to me a billboard that said: texasteachers.org... 'Want to be a teacher?' As we were driving past, I got my cell phone. You just have to put down $395 [the full cost, according to the website, of getting alternative teacher certification is $4,195]...
"Does TFA want to be remembered in history as the leading edge of a movement that destroyed the education profession? "
Tough talk (that also drew applause from the crowd). Terry Bruner, Teach for America executive director for the Houston Region, listened and was part of the after-speech panel. He, not surprisingly, didn't reply.

You may think this video has no meaning to Public education and student learning but I think it does. Do we have a one Pepsi system or a one spaghetti sauce system and people are looking for choices in education. Choices on learning styles not just lecture or PBL. We know that there is at least 11 different learning styles so how do we make this market horizontal enriched.

http://www.ted.com Tipping Point author Malcolm Gladwell gets inside the food industry's pursuit of the perfect spaghetti sauce -- and makes a larger argument about the nature of choice and happiness.

TEDTalks is a daily video podcast of the best talks and performances from the TED Conference, where the world's leading thinkers and doers are invited to give the talk of their lives in 18 minutes -- including speakers such as Jill Bolte Taylor, Sir Ken Robinson, Hans Rosling, Al Gore and Arthur Benjamin. TED stands for Technology, Entertainment, and Design, and TEDTalks cover these topics as well as science, business, politics and the arts. Watch the Top 10 TEDTalks on TED.com, at
http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/top10

Friday, June 1, 2012

http://www.Qwanz.com/iPadschool Inka from Qwanz.com talks about the
Apple iPad and its new role in the US educational system. What do you think? Share your thoughts on Qwanz.com by clicking on the link above